Probation and parole officers who deal with sex offenders have a lot of weight on their shoulders: they are responsible for monitoring a group of people who pose a serious threat to society and have a high rate of reoffense.  With so much at stake, corrections professionals go to great lengths to keep track of these individuals in the community.  While technologies, like RF monitoring and GPS, play an important role in that oversight, so, too can polygraph tests.

"What makes [a polygraph] important and useful is that we can make determinations about a person, whether they are lying or not, based on physiological changes," said Margaret Bullens, a Forensic Psychophysiologist with Bullens & Bullens Forensic Assessments.  "These are things you can not control or hide."

According to Bullens, who recently gave a presentation on polygraph testing at the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center's Fifth Annual Innovative Technologies for Community Corrections Conference, various changes occur in people's bodies when they know they are lying.  Their heart rates, blood pressure and skin temperatures can all be affected when they are being dishonest, she said. 

"We're looking at a person's [physiology] in relation to the questions that we're asking," said Bullens, whose company has done polygraph examinations for various law enforcement agencies, including the San Diego County's Probation Department.  "We don't press a button and wait and say 'oh, he lied.'"

Improving Offender Accountability

While the practice of using a polygraph has caused some controversy in past years in regard to its accuracy, Bullens maintains that it is a credible method of eliciting information from offenders.  In fact, in 1997, the National Institute of Justice published a study defining best practices for dealing with sex offenders.  The Containment Model, with polygraph examinations as one of its key elements, emerged at this time.

Aside from polygraph examinations, the Containment Model also names external and internal controls, such as specialized supervision and treatment, as effective means of managing sex offenders in the community.  Together, all of these components are intended to make offenders more accountable for their actions.

"The main part of the Containment Model is that it's an accountability model," Bullens said.  "What we can do is help people make better choices in what behavior they actually entertain."

By routinely polygraph testing offenders, probation and parole officers are able to better determine what offenders are doing in the community, hold them responsible for those actions and target their treatment appropriately. 

"The value of the polygraph is mostly in the information learned or gleaned from the tests themselves," Bullens said.

But, like drug testing, polygraph examinations can also play another role: they can deter sex offenders from reoffending, she added.

"If you tell people ahead of time 'here are your terms and conditions of probation and, by the way, you're going to be subjected to [a] polygraph,' [it] does work as a deterrent," Bullens said.

Following Up on Failed Tests

For the purposes of risk management, there are several types of post-conviction polygraphs that can be administered to offenders including a maintenance test to determine if an offender has violated his probation, a maintenance test to see if an offender is having treatment issues and a monitoring test to determine if an individual has reoffended.

Once an offender has failed any of these examinations, it is important to retest him within 30 days, according to Bullens.

"Any time there's a failed test, all of our reactions should be 'what is the worst case scenario that could have caused him to fail this test,'" Bullens said.  "[Retesting] helps support the issue of accountability."

While retesting offenders to delve deeper into the issues is important, it is also essential for agencies to take action when offenders fail exams.

"When you know something, you've got to do something," Bullens said.  "They're lying to you about issues of compliance and risk.  You can't just say 'well in six months from now I hope you pass,'" she added.  "If people are failing polygraph tests and nobody does anything about it, [then] what is the effect of [a] polygraph over time?  It gets reduced significantly."

Because it is necessary to act quickly when offenders are unable to pass a polygraph, it's important for agencies to already have a procedure in place for dealing with people who fail, whether its because they recommitted their offense or violated their parole somehow.

An offender who was originally convicted of child molestation may not have reoffended, but he might still fail his polygraph test because he looked at child pornography.  Either way, agencies need to know which steps to follow next.

"You have to have a plan when there's so much disclosure and new information because sometimes everyone looks at the new information differently," said Bullens.  "That's why you have to have some plan [of action] or at least a plan to sit at the table with different agencies."

Aiding Offenders and Keeping Society Safe

According to Bullens, at the point of failure, offenders treatment and supervision need to be reevaluated.

"That's the goal to get to the heart of the matter so we can provide [corrections professionals and treatment providers with truthful information]," Bullens said.  "If we're really getting to the [point] of helping offenders take accountability for their actions, then that's really where we have to begin is honesty and truth."

And exposing the truth in order to aid in the rehabilitation of sex offenders, by helping to monitor them more closely and target their treatment, is a primary goal of polygraph, according to Bullens.

"We want to know the truth and get down to ground zero so that probation and treatment can start working," Bullens said.  "This is a very dynamic field.  [It's] dynamic in the sense that [it's] people's lives we work with.  Each time we have a meeting, we have a chance to make an impact," she added.  "Any little bit of that work is positive for us."

But that work can't be accomplished by polygraph testing alone, according to Bullens.  Agencies need to take the information learned from testing and apply it to sex offender supervision and treatment, she said.

"Polygraph is a tool, it's a process, but it's not a be all, end all.  You've got to use the information; if you're not using the information, it becomes ineffective," said Bullens.  "Nothing is in and of itself a panacea."

Resources:

Bullens & Bullens Forensic Assessments www.forensic-assessments.com